Today, single women, craftsmen and hobbyists can make commercial jewellery,” he says, adding that social media marketing is another huge factor in this AM revolution. “Today, cheaper machines like Formlabs are available in the market, which reducw the capital expenditure and running cost, allowing craftsmen in this segment to become entrepreneurs. Initially, the models were manufactured or printed using machines that were expensive, almost to the tune of Rs50 lakh or more per machine, points out Gaurav Loyalka, Co-Founder, Novabeans, a Delhi-based 3D printing service provider. “Moreover, the technology gives a jeweller the freedom to create different moulds quickly and thus customise the jewellery for his/her clients,” adds Sharma With rapid innovation, technology has also become significantly affordable in the past few years. Most customers want unique pieces and this technology enables jewellers to create more designs. We can see exact replocas of our products, identify the problems and address them immediately” Rohan Sharma, Managing Director, RK Jewellers, South Extension-2 Rohan Sharma, Managing Director, RK Jewellers Making exclusive pieces have also become easier as creating a mould now is a lot simpler than it was when one used wax moulds.
“3D printing has revolutionalised the product development process. Besides helping build prototypes faster, 3D technology is also cost-effective once the economies of scale are achieved, points out Rohan Sharma, Managing Director of RK Jewellers, South Extension-2.
3D printing has helped India leapfrog and catch up with Italian workmanship,” she adds. Ishu Datwani, Founder, Anmol seconds this, “One can now make amazing and complicated designs in less time and money. This helps designers achieve more accuracy and waste less of the precious materials,” adds Rastogi. “Jewellery designers can use 3D printing to create mockups of their creations before initiating the actual process. Avama Jewellers According to jewellery connoisseur Tanya Rastogi of Lala Jugal Kishore Jewellers, 3D printing makes the mould creation process much faster. The traditional method of wax moulds is being replaced by 3D printing and designing,” he adds. “3D printing is now used to create patterns for investment casting and to print jewellery directly. “Many jewellers now use the technology to disrupt the way things were done for hundreds of years,” says Abhishek Kajaria, Founder of Avama Jewellers. With CAD and 3D printing, the buyers can be a part of the entire process too, not to mention the level of customisation that can be offered to them. A piece that would go through a long production cycle spanning many days now takes just 12 to 14 hours. Metal is then poured into the mould and the design comes alive. The 3D printer produces a thermoplastic wax mould of the jewellery. However, with the advent of ComputerAided Designing (CAD), manufacturers can now render a 3D digital piece of the jewellery. The original parts were sculpted by the karigars.
The piece would then be painstakingly hand-carved and welded together. Cutting edge Traditionally, a piece of jewellery was custom-made and designed as per the specifications and preferences of a buyer that involved several processes and many man-hours. 3D printing, also known as desktop fabrication, or additive manufacturing (AM)-the process of building three-dimensional solid objects from digital design using additive methods-has proved to be a game changer in the past 15 years. Rajiv Dogra For the traditional jewellery industry in India that has long prided itself for the skills of its karigars, technology is proving to be a disruptor of sorts.